PUBLICATIONS

Working-age adults typically hold a wealth of knowledge gained through sustained working experience, on-the-job training, non-credit educational programs, and for some, military service. This paper explores how Workforce Development Boards (WDB) can use Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) to provide a more efficient pathway for adult students to acquire credit and skills valued in the labor market. PLA has proven to increase the persistence to graduation and is a tool that allows workforce system customers valuable and cost effective post-secondary credentials. Thank you to the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) and the ECMC Foundation for making this paper possible.

NAWB in conjunction with Innovate+Educate (I+E) and the Urban Institute fielded a survey in 2017 of workforce development boards (WDBs) to assess how workforce boards are servicing parents under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). In Spring 2018, Urban Institute released Family Centered Approaches to Workforce Program Services, a report based on the findings from the survey. The report provides a snapshot of how WDBs are supporting parents and families in creating economic stability through employment and examines the implementation of family friendly services in six areas: planning and oversight, data, partnerships, deliver of services, funding, and policy. The report is one aspect of a larger NAWB initiative, NAWB and I+E Family Centered Employment initiative, funded by W.K. Kellogg Foundation, to aid workforce boards in advancing pathways to employment for parents and families of young children. NAWB has partnered with I+E to work with three workforce boards across the country to expand understanding and programming of family-centered services by piloting tools and techniques to ensure parents have increased opportunities for employment and their families have access to high quality services and child care.

Workforce boards and the apprenticeship system share the same fundamental goals: they connect workers to economic opportunity while meeting the skill needs of employers in high-demand industries.

A finished paper on the connection between workforce boards and the education community that Jobs for the Future developed from its initial white paper. This was released to a broad audience.

December 2016

Options for funding workforce development, presented by the Federal Reserve and Third Sector Capital Partners.

Authors: Committee on Improving Higher Education's Responsiveness to Regional STEM Workforce Needs: Identifying Analytical Tools and Regional Best Practices; Board on Higher Education and Workforce; Policy and Global Affairs; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 

April 2016

Authors: Marilyn Matsunaga, MBA; Ron Painter, MPA; Jose Reyes, Ed.D.; Mitch Rosin, MA, MS, MPS

Whitepaper analyzes the reasons why access to educational material online is critical to moving the United States forward in terms of economic development and academic attainment.

August 2014

Analytical Report - National Association of Workforce Boards and Public Consulting Group

August, 2013

Innovative Approaches to Managing Risk for the National Association of Workforce Boards

University of Pittsburgh | GSPIA